Sri Lanka’s military says it has unearthed the biggest cache of pistol ammunition buried in the former war zone amid government claims Tiger rebels are trying regroup.

Naval troops found the buried ammunition on Friday in the coastal area of Mullaittivu where the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leadership was wiped out in a final offensive in May 2009, the navy said in a statement on Saturday.

“This is the largest stock of LTTE pistol ammunition ever to be recovered by the security forces,” navy spokesman Kosala Warnakulasuriya told AFP news agency.

“We think this ammunition was buried over five years ago.”

Troops found 120,000 pistol rounds along with 8000 rounds of other ammunition.

The navy also released photographs of the ammunition from what it said was the same area where the final civil war battles were fought five years ago.

The navy said the discovery was made on “information received” by them, but gave no details.

The find comes amid government claims remnants of the LTTE are trying to regroup and stage a comeback five years after their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed by security forces, ending nearly four decades of ethnic war.